![]() Authoritarianism has become significantly more popular these days, even in otherwise democratic societies like India, Brazil, and the United States.ĭroves of voters have abandoned mainstream parties across the planet, disillusioned by the way they’ve supported a version of economic globalization that has wildly enriched the already rich, challenged the middle class, and left the poor at the bottom of thebarrel. The current climate emergency coincides with a profound disillusionment with the liberal world order. The second lifeboat option - think of it as eco-authoritarianism - seems to better fit the temper of the times. In this way, the planet risks following the first lifeboat scenario: talking ourselves to death. In a number of countries around the world, democratic elections subsequently brought climate-change deniers like Donald Trump to power, further compromising that accord. In 2015, the countries of the world came together in Paris and negotiated a non-binding climate accord that was a victory for compromise but a failure for shrinking the planet’s actual carbon footprint. The international community has tried, in a roughly democratic fashion, to avoid the apocalypse. Opinion is divided, however, on how to address this problem with the urgency it requires. According to most climate scientists, the window of opportunity to prevent irrevocable climate change is about a dozen years. On Lifeboat Earth, time and resources are similarly limited. The second lifeboat is moving at a good pace - but is it going in the right direction? When someone falls deathly ill, he orders the incapacitated man thrown overboard. The new leader imposes rules on who rows and who eats. The others agree that there’s no time for more discussion. Not everyone agrees, but dissenters are silenced. In the second boat, one person takes control, believing he alone has the skill and knowledge to steer the lifeboat toward land. They debate for hours, growing weaker and weaker until they no longer have the energy to do anything and the issue decides itself. In the first boat, the survivors debate the problem: Should they stay in place and conserve their energy or strike off in search of land? They divide into three committees to address the different aspects of the problem and present their findings, making sure everyone has input. Based on some educated guesses by one knowledgeable crewmember, the boats are at least five days from land, if everyone rows together and they don’t veer off course. Both contain the same number of people and a limited amount of food. It is, however, the perfect environment to test out the best way to deal with life-and-death situations.įor such a test, imagine not one but two lifeboats of survivors bobbing in an endless, empty sea. People onboard are beginning to panic and the clock is ticking. Our planet is now more like a lifeboat that’s sprung a major leak. Thanks to climate change, this metaphor no longer works. At its best, the Earth was once likened to a spaceship that sails through the heavens with a crew working together for the common good. ![]()
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